page_title: Metallography
section_title: Scanning electron and transmission electron microscopes
hierarchical_section_title: Metallography / Analysis techniques / Scanning electron and transmission electron microscopes
caption_attribution_description: Foto van een diffractometer, genomen met simpel digitaal fototoestelletje. Deze diffractometer is eigendom van de afdeling Technische Materiaalwetenschappen aan de nl:Technische Universiteit Delft.
context_page_description: Metallography is the study of the physical structure and components of metals, by using microscopy.
  Ceramic and polymeric materials may also be prepared using metallographic techniques, hence the terms ceramography, plastography and, collectively, materialography.
context_section_description: If a specimen must be observed at higher magnification, it can be examined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM), or a transmission electron microscope (TEM).  When equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS), the chemical composition of the microstructural features can be determined. The ability to detect low-atomic number elements, such as carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen, depends upon the nature of the detector used. But, quantification of these elements by EDS is difficult and their minimum detectable limits are higher than when a wavelength-dispersive spectrometer (WDS) is used. But quantification of composition by EDS has improved greatly over time. The WDS system has historically had better sensitivity (ability to detect low amounts of an element) and ability to detect low-atomic weight elements, as well as better quantification of compositions, compared to EDS, but it was slower to use. Again, in recent years, the speed required to perform WDS analysis has improved substantially. Historically, EDS was used with the SEM while WDS was used with the electron microprobe analyzer (EMPA). Today, EDS and WDS is used with both the SEM and the EMPA. However, a dedicated EMPA is not as common as an SEM.
caption: An x-ray diffractometer
exif: {}